I was wondering how deep a bas relief carve you can get with PVC. I saw on the web site a greyscale heigth map of a leaf.
Here's my problem. I'm a potter with the need to make a bas relief mold for a regional motif.
Since these are to be made of porcelain clay I need to design a bas relief master to make the mold from.
My thought is to design a 4 in disk about 1/4 in thick made of corian and carve the relief down about 1/8 in.
I am thinking about a lighthouse in the center with a rope around thew edge( as bas relief).
Can PVC carve a smooth relief curve like that of the lighthouse or will it be stair stepped(assuming the greyscale is smooth as well)

My next issue is to make the model form an inexpensive and easy to learn bas relief software.
I'd like a cut and paste style like coreldraw but in solid modeling
Aspire is tooo much $$$$ but it would work.
Thanks Wyndham